Book Review #19

The Book Thief

Author: Markus Zusak
Audible Audiobook: Unabridged (13 hours and 56 minutes)
ASIN: B000J20TZA
Publisher: Listening Library
Release Date: Audible.com, 2006

Narrator: Allan Corduner -  He is an English actor that grew up in London, in a secular Jewish home. His mother escaped from Nazi Germany in 1938. He has narrated many novels and voices for video games. 
 
Quality of the Audiobook:
The sound quality was quite good.  Corduner has a very distinctive British accent that lends itself well to the character of Death in the story. The narrator of the book is Death and Corduner offers Death, the character, an embodiment that is very believable, yet endearing.
 
Listening Experience:
The listening experience was enjoyable. However, having read the book previous to listing to the audio version, I already had separate voices for the characters in my head. The rhythm and pace were nice and comfortable, and I had no problems following along with the story. The audio book was easy to access, and I like the simplicity of being able to hear a story at times when I am busy doing other things.
 

“The kind of book that can be life-changing.” ~~The New York Times

 
Reading Level: 12 & up
 
Main Characters: Death, Liesel Meminger, Hans and Rosa Hubermann, Rudy, & Max.

Setting: Most of the story occurs during 1939-1942 in the  fictional town of Molching, Germany.
 
Plot: Death is observing and extracting souls during a horrible time in history. Liesel’s brother dies and they burry him. Liesel steals a book from the gravedigger, hence the name book thief. Liesel’s Mother sends her to be cared for by foster parents, Hans and Rosa Hubermann. She becomes friends with Rudy, and boy in her neighborhood. Hans teaches Liesel to read.
 
The town holds a book-burning and Liesel steals another book. The mayor’s wife, Ilsa Hermann allows her to read from her library. Hans has made a promise to take care of a Jewish boy, Max. Liesel become friends with Max, while he is hidden in the basement. Liesel continues to steal books and Ilsa gives her a book to write her own story.
 
Her neighborhood is bombed, and Hans, Rosa, and Rudy are killed. Liesel leaves her completed book, called “The Book Thief” behind in the rubble and Death salvages the book.
 
 5 Roars!🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁
 
Critical Analysis: As death is talking to the reader, he gives you the feeling that nothing good is coming if it is Death that is narrating the story. Death is drawn to colors, mainly as a survival technique.  Death mentions at the beginning of the book that “leftover humans” those he calls the survivors with the “punctured hearts” are disturbing for him to see. 

 

“They were French, they were Jews, and they were you.''

~~ Death, The Book Thief

 
The reader feels as sorry for Death, as the loss of the character that is leaving the story when he comes for them.  For me, Death became the character I felt the most sorrow for, because his job continues, while the souls exit the sadness of the world and move on to something other than this world. Death is clearly both poetic and damaged by the job, but cannot leave this suffering world behind.  

There is a lot of figurative language in the book.

 

"In The Book Thief, where battling to survive is sometimes an act of weakness, we see fighting in all its complexity. Max dreams, for instance, that he is boxing with the Führer. 'There was only one round, and it lasted hours, and for the most part, nothing changed. The Führer pounded away at the punching-bag Jew.' But then Max recovers and knocks Hitler down. Hitler takes off his gloves, seemingly defeated — until he whips the crowd into a fury. The 'fists of an entire nation' attack Max, and he cannot fight them all off. This is fighting as The Book Thief understands it: winners often lose."

~~ Review by John Green, 

The New York Times

I think the average 12-year-old might be overwhelmed by the sadness and the loss of life in this book. I think this book is better suited for readers 15 and up, or adults.
 
Why 5 Roars? It is a sad time in history, but the book is worth trudging through the sorrow and hardships of the characters to read it. It leaves you with the understanding of how valuable the words we read are and that the freedom to read should not be taken for granted.
 
Awards:
Kirkus Reviews Editor Choice Award,
School Library Journal Best Book of the Year,
Daniel Elliott Peace Award,
Publishers Weekly Best Children Book of the Year,
Booklist Children Editors' Choice,
Bulletin Blue Ribbon Book,
Boeke Prize,
ALA Best Books for Young Adults,

Connections:

 The Book Thief Official Movie Trailer 

Book Review #18

 Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute: Lunch Lady #1

Author: Jarrett J. Krosoczka

ISBN: 978-0375846830

Publisher: Knopf Books for 

Young Readers, 2009

Grade Level  7-10 years

Genre/Theme/Style: Graphic Novel.

Good vs. evil, superheroes, and secrete crimefighters.  

The style of this graphic novel series is based on undercover, superheroes that fight crime with lots of humor.    

 

Main Characters: The Lunch Lady and Betty, her assistant. The Breakfast Bunch - Hector, Dee, and Terrence.

Setting: The school where the Lunch Lady works.

Plot: The school lunch lady is a secret crime fighter. Along with Betty her gadget crafting side kick, the lunch lady uncovers an evil plot by the suspicious, substitute teacher to replace all the teachers with robots. 

While the lunch lady is spying on the substitute teacher, Hector, Dee, and Terrence are spying on her. The lunch lady discovers that the substitute teacher is really a cyborg and they must stop his evil plan.  

 4 Roars! 🦁🦁🦁🦁

Critical Analysis: This is a humorous, slapstick Graphic novel that centers on a lunch lady and her sidekick Betty that solve crime and injustice along with serving up, “whaaamburgers and cries.” 

The humor comes in the form of finding ways of making the ordinary cafeteria and the ordinary lunch lady into something anything but ordinary. Fun examples of this are the secret lunch tray laptop, and chicken nugget bombs. It is part of a series, so kids that enjoy this type of humor can enjoy more Lunch Lady adventures.  

“This tongue-in-cheek superheroine graphic novel will hit the spot for chapter-book readers. Lunch Lady and Betty, her assistant in both the cafeteria and her role of wrong-­righting supersleuth, investigate the strange case of an absent teacher, his creepy substitute, and a plan to grab the Teacher of the Year Award by truly foul means. Three little kids join in the action as Lunch Lady, equipped with a variety of high-tech kitchen gadgets like a spatu-copter and a lunch-tray laptop, tracks a cleverly disguised robot to his maker’s lab, where a whole army of cyborgs require kicking, stomping, and the wielding of fish-stick nunchucks. Yellow-highlighted pen-and-ink cartoons are as energetic and smile-provoking as Lunch Lady’s epithets of “Cauliflower!” and Betty’s ultimate weapon, the hairnet. There is a nice twist in the surprise ending, and the kids’ ability to stand up to the school bully shows off their newfound confidence in a credible manner. Little details invite and reward repeat readings with visual as well as verbal punning.” ~~Francisca Goldsmith, Booklist

Why 4 Roars? The humor was cute, but the plot left something to be desired. I think it might hold a younger reader’s attention longer than an older reader. It is a charming idea, but the actual storyline was lacking for me. It was a short read, but with a lot of action and adventure.   

Illustrations: I liked the simple yellow, gray, and black, illustrations by Krosoczka. They would be great for younger readers, and they have a light playful side to them.

Awards: Cooperative Children’s Book Center Choices & IRA Children’s Choices

Connections:  

Meet-the-AuthorRecording 

Book Review #17

 The Graveyard Book

Author: Neil Gaiman

Illustrator: Dave McKean

ISBN:978-0060530945

Publisher: HarperCollins; Reprint edition, 2010 

Genre/Theme/Style: Children's Fantasy. Good vs. evil, community, life & death, the supernatural. 

The style of the book changes narration at times and uses episodic layout to break the work into manageable pieces. This works well for emerging readers, in my opinion. It borrows heavily from Gothic literature with flashes of darkness, dark humor, prophesies, and Supernatural events. 

Main Characters: Nobody "Bod" Owens, Silas, Mr. & Mrs. Owens, Jack Frost, Liza Hempstock, Scarlet Perkins, & the community of the Graveyard. 

Setting: A graveyard in an English village, & beyond the gates of the graveyard. 

Plot: Jack murders an entire family, except the toddler that climbs out of his crib and goes up the hill to the graveyard. Mr. and Mrs. Owens, departed ghosts, adopt him and Silas, a vampire, becomes his guardian. They name him Nobody Owens and call him Bod. The community of the graveyard accepts him, and he is given Freedom of the Graveyard. This includes the privileges of Haunting and Fading. Bod becomes friends with a human girl, a witch, and a werewolf. 

As Bod grows up, Scarlett, the human girl, realizes that the police never solved the case of Bod’s family’s murders. Jack, who is a member of the Jack of All Trades, an ancient society that wants to murder Bod because of a prophesy about a boy destroying all of them, becomes friends with Scarlett's mother. Bod goes to Mr. Frost’s house with Scarlett, with the hope of finding out his real name. Bod is shocked to find that Mr. Frost is actually Jack. Bod and Scarlet manage to escape to the graveyard. Bod has a few tricks up his sleeve, but you will have to read the ending for yourself.   

 5 Roars! 🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁

Critical Analysis: Neil Gaiman is one of my favorite authors. I have a small collection of his books that sit on my home library shelves along side much loved authors like Terry Pratchett, and Douglas Adams. 

Gaiman skillfully weaves mythology into many of his stories, plays with and redefines personifications of old deities such as Jack Frost, and yet still feels contemporary and timeless. He uses dark humor effortlessly to make these characters seem fresh and modern. 

However, for me it is all about how he interlaces bits of wisdom into his overall work. I think Gaiman, Pratchett, and Adams all do this with ease. Gaiman leans on small bits of wisdom, and sprinkles of insight into the human spirit to make you want to read more of his stories.  

"People want to forge the impossible.  It makes their world safer."

~~ Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book

  

"Fear is contagious. You can catch it. Sometimes all it take is for someone to say that they're scared for the fear 

to be come real."

~~ Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book

  "We are deep in Neil Gaiman territory here, and it's hard to think of a more delightful and scary place to spend 300 pages. Mrs Owens names the boy Nobody, "Bod" for short, and in each successive chapter Bod is another two years older, growing from infant to young teenager through a series of not always connected adventures." ~~ The Guardian

"Childhood fears take solid shape in the nursery-rhyme–inspired villains, while heroism is its own, often bitter, reward." ~~Kirkus Reviews 

Why 5 Roars? With quotes like, “Nearly' only counts in horseshoes and hand-grenades.” The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman is hard to ignore. The characters are well defined, the atmosphere is pleasantly spooky in a suspenseful but tasteful way, and the humor gets better each time you read the book.  

Awards: Hugo Award for Best Novel,  Newberry Medal, Locus Award for Best Young Adult Novel, & Carnegie Medal 

Connections: Gothic Novel Study 

Book Review #16

 Turkey Trouble

 

Author: Wendi Silvano
Illustrator: Lee Harper
Publisher: Two Lions, 2009
ISBN: 978-0761455295
Reading Level: 3 - 7 years

Main Characters: Turkey, Farmer Jake, and all his farmyard friends.

Plot: Thanksgiving is at hand and Turkey🦃 is wondering what to do, fortunately he comes up with a clever solution. He disguises himself as other farmyard animals that he thinks Farmer Jake will not eat for Thanksgiving. Will his costumes work? Turkey's last costume is his best idea ever, and everyone loves the Thanksgiving meal!

Settings: Farmer Jake's house and farmyard.

Genre/Theme/Style: Children’s Humor
The style is comical and leaves you with a smile and possibly a craving for pizza! 🍕

 

"Kids will eat this up this clever 

and comical tale."

 ~~Booklist

5 Roars! 🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁

Critical Analysis: A great addition to your Thanksgiving traditions. The artwork is cute, the story is witty, and the ending is happy. 

 

"Stuffed with clever wordplay, groanable puns, and easy-to-ham-it-up animal sounds, the chuckle-inducing narrative makes a crowd-pleasing read-aloud. Turkey's getups are exuberantly silly, and the animals' sardonic facial expressions are sublime." 

~~School Library Journal

Why 5 Roars? Who doesn't love a terrific turkey tale at Thanksgiving? I know I do! It is great fun for young and old readers alike. It can easily be read at a family gathering and enjoyed by all. Gobble, Gobble!  

Connections:

Turkey Facts

Book Review #15

 Breaking Stalin's Nose

Author: Eugene Yelchin

Publisher : Henry Holt and Co., 2011

ISBN: 978-0805092165

Genre: Historical Fiction

Reading Level: 9 - 12 years

4 Roars! 🦁🦁🦁🦁

Why 4 Roars? I think an adult might need to explain some of the details to a reader between the ages of nine and twelve years old. A great deal of reading between the lines is necessary to fully understand the whole of the story. 

There is such an underlying gloom of political fear that I wonder if some readers will be able to grasp all of it. The majority of the themes are aimed at an adult understanding of the political climate that occurred during this time period. That might make it difficult for readers without contextual support.   

Main Characters: Sasha Zaichik and his father, a good Communist who works for the State Security (secret police).

Plot: Sasha, a ten-year-old boy, is committed to Stalin and is eager to become a Young Pioneer. His father works for the State Security and is a hero in Sasha’s eyes. His American mother has died mysteriously. His father is arrested, and a confused Sasha is left to wonder what happened.  Even though his relatives refuse to take him in, he continues to attend school. He accidently breaks off the nose of the school's sculpture of Stalin and Sasha realizes that he does not want to be a Young Pioneer.

Setting: Soviet Russia during the Cold War period.

Theme: The book is written from a child's point of view. The protagonist goes through a touching major shift in viewpoint and a life changing predicament when his father is arrested. His mother has died mysteriously and the events surrounding him are very in keeping with a child living in a tyrannical society. 

There is a lot of secrecy and disappointment that creates a feeling of disenchantment for the reader during the course of the story. The humor is overshadowed by grief and deep loss. Sasha’s understanding of the world is dimly lit by the oppressive shadow of communism. 

After taking small bites of a carrot to make it last longer, Sasha feels sorry for children in capitalist’s countries. “I wonder what it’s like in the capitalist’s countries. I wouldn’t be surprised if children there had never even tasted a carrot,“ he ponders.

Style: The author's drawings are interesting and adds a good bit to the storyline. The book is a quick read with short chapters, but especially descriptive.

“Mr. Yelchin has compressed into two days of events an entire epoch, giving young readers a glimpse of the precariousness of life in a capricious yet ever-watchful totalitarian state.” ~~Wall Street Journal

The ending is left open and does not happily wrap up the problems. The ending gives the reader a great deal to ponder or discuss, which could be frustrating or great for allowing readers to make their own predictions.   

Additional Criteria:

I did not get a great deal of historical detail in the book, due to its brevity. I thought it focused on principles and personal choice more so than historical facts. However, the accuracy is based on the author’s own personal experience of the Russian communist establishment.

“Sasha is 10 years old and is devoted to Stalin, even writing adoring letters to Comrade Stalin expressing his eagerness at becoming a Young Pioneer. But his mother has died mysteriously, his father has been imprisoned and Sasha finds he has important moral choices to make. Yelchin’s graphite illustrations are an effective complement to his prose, which unfurls in Sasha’s steady, first-person voice, and together they tell an important tale. Yelchin’s graphite illustrations are an effective complement to his prose, which unfurls in Sasha’s steady, first-person voice, and together they tell an important tale.” 
~~Kirkus Reviews

“ This brief novel gets at the heart of a society that asks its citizens, even its children, to report on relatives and friends. Appropriately menacing illustrations by first-time novelist Yelchin add a sinister tone.” 
~~ The Horn Book

Awards: A Newbery Honor Book, Washington Post Best Children's Book of the Year

Connections: 

Information about Communism

Information about Democracy 

Book Review #14

The Midwife’s Apprentice

Author: Karen Cushman

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, March 1991

ISBN: 9780395692295

Genre: Historical Fiction

 4 Roars! 🦁🦁🦁🦁

Why 4 Roars? I remember reading this book years ago and enjoying the idea that it did not romanticize medieval life. However, for many young readers that could pose a problem. It is abrasive at times and does describe how children are born. One such example is the protagonist finding an unmarried couple in the barn together. This might not work for many young readers.

Main Characters: A young girl with no name that eventually calls herself Alyce, a midwife named Jane, and a homeless boy Alyce named Edward.

Setting: Village life in medieval England

Plot: A homeless young girl without a name, who finally becomes Alyce, is taken in by a midwife named Jane.  Alyce assists Jane in the mundane duties of a midwife and finds a future for herself as a midwife. Along the way, Alyce helps an orphaned boy that she names Edward and runs away after a difficult birth. She returns to the town to check on Edward and decides to continue her midwife’s apprenticeship.

Style: The plot was fast paced but simple.  It has colorful characters and keeps the reader's attention. It emphasizes the need for self-improvement and making a place in the world.

“Just because you don't know everything don't mean you know nothing.” 

~~ The Midwife’s Apprentice

Theme: Readers can easily sympathize with the conditions of children in the medieval period. This theme of appreciating the quality of life that readers have today compared with that of the past is undoubtedly the main take away. 

The improved conditions of hospitals and modern medical knowledge is a glaring premise that the reader cannot help but grasp and appreciate.     

 
Additional Criteria: Medieval midwives had a great many superstitions, and these helped to make the book more historically accurate. The speech patterns felt genuine and the main character does seem to be a typical twelve or thirteen-year-old girl. The Author’s Note provided background and historical knowledge on midwifery.

“With simplicity, wit, and humor, Cushman presents another tale of medieval England. Here readers follow the satisfying, literal and figurative journey of a homeless, nameless child called Brat, who might be 12 or 13? No one really knows. She wandered about in her early years, seeking food and any kind of refuge and, like many outsiders, gained a certain kind of wisdom about people and their ways. Still, life held little purpose beyond survival until she meets the sharp-nosed, irritable local midwife, which is where this story begins. Jane takes her in, re-names her Beetle, and thinks of her as free labor and no competition. Always practical but initially timid, the girl expands in courage and self-awareness, acquiring a cat as a companion, naming herself Alyce, and gaining experience in the ways of midwifery. From the breathless delight of helping a boy to deliver twin calves, to the despair of failure during a difficult birth, to the triumph of a successful delivery, Alyce struggles to understand how she can allow herself to fail and yet have the determination to reach for her own place in the world. Alyce wins. Characters are sketched briefly but with telling, witty detail, and the very scents and sounds of the land and people's occupations fill each page as Alyce comes of age and heart. Earthy humor, the foibles of humans both high and low, and a fascinating mix of superstition and genuinely helpful herbal remedies attached to childbirth make this a truly delightful introduction to a world seldom seen in children's literature.”  

~~ School Library Journal

 
Awards: Newbery Medal

Connections:
Karen Cushman Books

Book Review #13

 

The Hired Girl

Author: Laura Amy Schlitz

Media: Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Publisher: Candlewick 

Release Date: Audible.com September 11, 2015

Narrator: Rachel Botchan  (12 hours and 48 minutes) 

ASIN - B0159JDVMA

Genre: Historical Fiction

 4 Roars! 🦁🦁🦁🦁

Why 4 Roars? Epistolary novels are typically not a style that I prefer to read, but because it was an audible book it was less of a distraction for me. (Epistolary – a novel written as a series of documents.) I gave it 4 roars because this could be confusing for some readers. 

Main Characters: Fourteen-year-old Joan Skraggs is the main character. Her biological family and the Rosenbach family make up the additional characters. 

Plot: Joan is the only girl in her family. Her father is verbally insulting and burns her few books.  Joan runs away from her farm in Pennsylvania. She finds herself being taken in as the hired girl by a kind Jewish family, the Rosenbach family.  

She is also the “Shabbos goy” or  goy shel shabat (גוי של שבת) that performs tasks that are not allowed for Jewish people on the Sabbath. Joan involves herself in the eldest Rosenbach son’s love life, she tries to convert the grandson to Catholicism, finds herself less than endeared to the lady of the house, and then decides she is in love with the Rosenbachs’ younger son. In spite of all of these growing pains, Joan manages to become a strong independent young lady.

Setting: A farm in Pennsylvania during 1911 and Baltimore in a Jewish household. 

Theme: This work reflects the morals of the times and explores the topics of beliefs, religions, social classes, feminism, and young love. 

“Fourteen-year-old Joan Skraggs is a reluctant drudge on her family's farm, and no one appreciates her. She pours her thoughts and emotions into her diary, which is the lens through which readers experience her life. And life on her family's 1911 hardscrabble Pennsylvania farm grinds on endlessly. She loves to read and longs for more education but is trapped by her circumstances. Her boorish father pushes Joan too far the day he burns her best friends—her books. Soon afterward, she escapes and makes her way to Baltimore. She is taken in by a wealthy Jewish family as a hired girl. They are like no family she has ever met; their affection, religion, and education bind them into a warm unit totally foreign to Joan. She grows to love the family and is surprised and hurt to learn of anti-Semitism.” ~~ School Library Journal

Style: This is a coming-of-age drama written in diary format. There were many positive references to art, literature, and the need for education. There were 5 illustrations at the beginning of each of the different parts of the book; that was a nice touch. 

Additional Criteria: There are plenty of period details. The author included the idea of Jewish persecution, and the main character had to learn about the running of a Jewish household. For example, how to store meats and dairy foods separately, kosher laws, and religious holidays. These are very accurate depictions of this time period and the cultural differences the main character might have encountered. 

“The diary format allows Joan's romantic tendencies full rein, as well as narrative latitude for a few highly improbable scenarios and wildly silly passion. Tons of period details, especially about clothing, round out a highly satisfying and smart breast-clutcher from this Newbery-winning author.” 

~~Kirkus Reviews

"An unusual novel, brilliantly executed, this book is well worth the reader's time and will not be easily forgotten." 

~~ Jewish Book Council

Awards: 

Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction, 2016 

Association of Jewish Libraries Sydney Taylor Award Winner 

Winner of the 2016 National Jewish Book Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature

Connections: 

Jewish Dietary Laws Overview